Shotgun/parts
Shotguns fall into two families, differentiated primarily by their magazines: combat shotguns and assault shotguns. Operationally, the two families strongly resemble one another, but combat shotguns have a lower rate of fire and a slightly higher degree of magnification when zoomed, while assault shotguns have a higher rate of fire, with fewer projectiles per shot. Other than magazines, the two families share most parts, though certain accessories or other parts are specific to one or the other. Different parts will influence different attributes of the weapon. Note: Shotgun parts also include a grip. However, the grip does not affect any of the weapon's attributes. Each grip design is specific to the weapon's manufacturer. A shotgun's name derives from the body, stock, and magazine parts present on the weapon. Parts Body The body of a shotgun is easy to identify, since the model name declares it straightforwardly, although visual identification can be hard due to trivial differences between shotgun bodies and the multitude of different materials available. Combat and assault shotguns share the same set of bodies. Stock The shotgun stock is completely specified within the weapon's model number, which is fortunate as the part is completely invisible in-game. Determining the stock on a unique shotgun without a model number is challenging, typically requiring either access to the debug console or to make performance comparisons with other shotguns. Combat and assault shotguns share the same set of stocks. The stock affects both overall weapon stability (i.e., recoil reduction) and the reload speed. Note that the weapon's model number is a function of both its stock model number (listed here) as well as its magazine model number. Magazine The magazine is specified within the weapon's model number. For unique weapons without a model number, magazines are mostly easily distinguished by the weapon's ammo capacity. Combat shotguns and assault shotguns use completely different magazines. Any shotgun with or is an assault shotgun, while all others are combat shotguns. Primarily, the magazine specifies the number of rounds of ammunition carried by the shotgun and may influence weapon damage and reload speed. Note that the weapon's model number is a function of both its magazine model number (listed here) as well as its stock model number. Combat Shotguns Note that Atlas shotguns with will contain 13 shots, not 12. Assault Shotguns Assault shotguns will have different ammunition capacities depending on the manufacturer, the material grade, and the magazine part. Maliwan, Vladof and Hyperion make assault shotguns with a baseline capacity of 5, while those made by S&S start at 7. An assault shotgun magazine has no effect on the weapon beyond specifying its ammunition capacity. Barrel While shotgun barrels do not affect the weapon's model number, they are easy to distinguish visually from their overall length and the profile of the end of the barrel. Combat and assault shotguns share most of the same set of barrels, though two variants are specific to combat shotguns. Barrels strongly affect the shotgun's damage and accuracy, and can influence recoil reduction and weapon tech level as well. Grip As with all weapons in Borderlands, the grip does not affect any of the shotgun's attributes. Each grip design is specific to the weapon's manufacturer, therefore each shotgun of the same manufacturer will have the same grip. CS = Combat Shotgun; AS = Assault Shotgun Sight Shotgun sights are easily distinguished by the zoom statistic published on the weapon's gun card. They have little further effect on the weapon's attributes. Certain fighting styles may nevertheless favor certain sights, either for ease when firing from the hip or for improved peripheral-field visibility. Combat and assault shotguns share the same set of sights, though the greater zoomed field-of-view of combat shotguns counterintuitively gives them a lower zoom statistic on their item card. The weapon's published zoom statistic may include a bonus when the manufacturer and material grade is Jakobs material 2 ("ZZ"). The following table summarizes zooms for weapons with no such modifier present. Accessory Unlike other parts, the accessory part does not have a consistent effect on a weapon's attributes: Some accessories boost tech, some alter recoil, some speed rate of fire. Some accessories grant a special property to the weapon, elemental damage, beyond mere attribute modification; furthermore, almost all accessories make their weapon eligible for a special name prefix describing the weapon's altered behavior, such as "Terrible." Most accessories are easy to differentiate visually. They either appear immediately to the left of the receiver, or (for melee accessories) jut from the bottom of the grip. An accessory may or may not be present on any given shotgun, and no more than a single accessory may be present, which is why the game will never spawn, for example, a legendary Raging Crux. While the elemental accessories are common to both families of shotguns, the rest are specific to one or the other. Elemental accessories There are four different elemental accessories, , , , and , corresponding to the four different varieties of elemental damage. Each glow in the color corresponding to their element, making them easily identifiable. Elemental accessories grant shots fired from the shotgun elemental properties, imposing a -40% damage penalty in exchange, and grant an increase to the weapon's overall tech level. The accessories of the legendary Plague, Friendly Fire, Crux, and Hammer each resemble an ordinary elemental accessory. However, Plague and Friendly Fire only appear on combat shotguns, while Crux and Hammer only appear on assault shotguns. The incendiary accessory will never spawn on an assault shotgun. A shotgun with an elemental accessory is eligible for various elemental prefixes, depending on the weapon's element and net tech level. Combat Shotguns Jagged accessory The Jagged accessory appears as a curved blade protruding from the grip of the weapon. A melee accessory on a shotgun dramatically improves melee damage while the shotgun is wielded. Attacks with melee shotguns have the same speed as the default melee attack, unlike similar strikes with slower melee pistols. The Jagged accessory increases melee damage by 150%. This bonus applies to the total of all damage that would have been inflicted without the accessory. Frenzied accessory The Frenzied accessory increases the rate of fire by 40%. Terrible accessory The Terrible accessory increases damage by 13% and knockback by 23%. Assault Shotguns Spiked accessory The Spiked accessory is visually identical to he Jagged accessory on a combat shotgun, and operates in a similar fashion. The Spiked accessory increases melee damage by 100%. Unlike the similar Jagged accessory (and indeed every other weapon melee accessory), this bonus is added alongside all other melee damage bonuses, rather than amplifying the final amount. Weapons with the Spiked accessory are eligible for the Spiked prefix. Raging accessory The Raging accessory increases the rate of fire by 20%, and speeds up reloading by 20%. Weapons with the Raging accessory are eligible for the Raging prefix. Painful accessory The Painful accessory increases damage by 13% and knockback by 23%. Weapons with the Painful accessory are eligible for the Painful prefix. No accessory The part serves as a placeholder for a weapon with conventional behavior, nothing more. A shotgun with this non-part will have no accessory visible beside the receiver. Naming Other than unique drops, a shotgun name consists of the name of its body, a model number comprising of stock and magazine, a possible manufacturer-specific material code, a prefix derived from its attributes or accessory, and a title. Since the two families of shotgun use different magazines with non-overlapping model codes, they are distinguishable by name. Body name The first element of the shotgun name is the name of its body part. To recap: Model number The model number consists of the sum of the number codes for the weapon's stock and magazine. Weapons with both a stock (i.e., any stock part other than ) and a quality magazine (any magazine other than or ) have this model number further multiplied by 10, denoting their premium quality. When the sum of stock and magazine numbers is 0, the name includes no model number at all. The magazine of the legendary Bulldog has the same code as its base part , 90. Hence Bulldogs are distinguishable only by their title "Bulldog." Material code Material codes are common to all weapons. See Material Grade for more info. Prefix The prefix is determined either by the weapon's overall attributes, its accessory, or possibly its material grade. Attribute prefixes may further bias the weapon's attributes. Title The title is determined either from the weapon's overall attributes, its accessory, or a legendary part. If the weapon does not qualify for any of these, its title defaults to "Shotgun." Other resources *The Gearcalc tool, whose mechanics research made the precise data on this page possible. *For an alternate specification of every shotgun part's contribution to the whole, see http://blmodding.wikidot.com/combat-shotgun and http://blmodding.wikidot.com/assault-shotgun *Part Spotter's Guide presents visuals of every part Category:Mechanics